Obama Plans Offense

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe outlined today in Washington an election strategy for the summer and fall that aims to keep Republican Sen. John McCain on defense all over the country, while expanding deep into GOP turf. California is not in play, but the Obama campaign hopes to tap volunteers from the state as soldiers for a “persuasian army” that will fan out to what the campaign hopes will be a whopping 18 battlegrounds.

In the West these are: Nevada, Montana, North Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico and Alaska.

Midwest: Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio.

Northeast: New Hampshire, Pennsylvania.

South: Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida.

“There’s not a head fake among them,” Plouffe said. “We are simply not going to wake up on election day with one state” determining the outcome. Plouffe’s unusual primary strategy helped beat the Clinton machine by rolling up delegates in caucus states, even though Obama himself was reportedly scratching his head on his way to little red Idaho days before Super Tuesday.

In a nod to Wimbledon, Plouffe said if Obama holds John Kerry’s 2004 states plus Iowa, and adds either Virginia or North Carolina, it’s “game, set, match.” That of course involves holding Pennsylvania, a top McCain target where Obama had trouble connecting with voters despite six weeks of on-the-ground campaigning against Sen. Hillary Clinton last spring.

Plouffe described a “strategic imperative” to keep as many of those states in play, and as deep into October, as possible. To do that, Plouffe said the campaign will follow Karl Rove’s playbook for President Bush’s voter mobilization in 2000 and 2004:”micro-targeting” individual voters in every precinct based on voter information gleaned from data bases.

Plouffe hopes to people his “persuasion army” with local volunteers who “live, talk and think” like the voters they are trying to persuade. Plouffe laid heavy emphasis on the potential of such volunteers to tilt the election. He hopes to expand beyond the usual array of door knockers to tap neighbors, friends and family to persuade voters who may be wavering or have questions about issues or news events.

How California volunteers fit in Georgia remains to be seen. But Plouffe is clearly convinced that personal voter-to-voter conversations are “really, really powerful” and can break through the din of advertising, direct mail and robo-calls. He said such conversations are especially important for Obama, about whom voters “need reassurance.”

The strategy plays off Obama’s huge organizational advantage over McCain, built state-by-state through the long primary fight.